What does the iPad have in store for Lunch Break Investors? Here are a few of my thoughts on how this will change it all:

1. Full web browser. No more squinting at the mobile version of our favorite financial site. I was able to log into my Scottrade account and view charts, financial data and news. Just like on my laptop. The only drawback I’ve had so far is that I can’t use the drawing tool on the stock chart. So, I’m still not at the point that I can completely know if a stock is trending.
2. The every growing awesome apps. The Apple app store has enough financial apps that should suit anyone’s strategy. I’ll start reviewing those over the next few days.
3. Numbers is the Apple version of Excel. This is an amazing application. I’m in the process of converting my stock tracking spreadsheet to it (I currently use Google Docs). Again, there is one draw back to the app, it will import Excel documents, but not export them.
4. iBooks, Knook (Barnes & Noble) and Kindle (Amazon). These are the three big boys of the ebook reader market (sorry Sony). Barnes & Noble and Kindle both run on the iPad. What does that mean for Lunch Break Investors? No more heavy books! You can now buy all your favorite books on your preferred format and read away.
5. The video player is much better on the iPad than on the iPhone/iPod touch. Now those videos from podcasts and iTunes U are much easier on the eyes. Time to upgrade your financial knowledge.

Those are my thoughts, do you have any to share. Post a comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Let’s do the math:

To make a million dollars in one week:

1. Invest enough money in stock that can be sold for a million dollar profit.
• Let’s say you have a stock that will go up 10% in one week.
• You’ll need to invest $10,000,000 to make your profit. If you have that much money, why do you need to get rich quick?
2. Invest $1,000 that grows to a million in one week.
• You would need to find that wonder stock that will grow 1,000%. To my knowledge, that doesn’t happen.

Sorry to burst the “get rich quick” bubble.

But, there is a way…

What you can do is grow your wealth using the stock market. Investing is more like growing a garden than winning the lottery (I’ll do that comparison later). Like a garden, you need to sow good seeds or in this case buy good stocks. You also need to weed out the bad stocks that bring down your portfolio.

Some ways to do this are:

1. Value investing
2. Large Cap Stocks
3. Small Cap Stocks
4. Trending

I won’t include day trading, because this is too risky. Besides, I’m a lunch break investor. I don’t have time to sit around watching the stock market. Any strategy should be easy to follow and not take up to much of your time.

Thanks for reading and happy trading!

After looking over my notes, I’ve decided that yes it does. There is a smaller portion of my portfolio that makes the most money versus the number of stocks I’ve bought/sold.

This makes for some interesting pondering. I invest in more stocks that lose money than make money. Yet, the ones that make money make up the difference plus add profits. So, this just proves that it’s not how many winners versus losers that you have, but how well the real winners do.

To wrap up this odd post. Cut your losses early, don’t buy into stocks that are losing money and invest more into the winners while they are winning.

Do you use the 80/20 Principle when you invest? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading. Happy Trading!

In an accessible place (handy dandy paper notebook, digital file or a whiteboard*) list the name of the stock, stock symbol, buy price range and the reason why. Why list the reason why? You’ll want to recheck your reasoning in case it changed. If you are buying on a trend, list that. You’ll want to check on the trend before buying. News is another good reason, make sure the news you were looking for happened.

The best way to create a list

Buy it. Seriously, buy it. I used to waste so much of my free time combing through the news and web sites trying to find the next big stock to buy. Why waste your time? Buy a list, there are plenty of services that can offer good selections. You can even buy a list on what type of investing you want like small cap, large cap, value investing and swing trading.

Here are a few services that sell lists:

Investor Business Daily:
Top rated stocks under $10
IBD 100
IBD 20

The 100 and 20 lists are published in the ever awesome Investor Business Daily. I’ll admit I’m a fan boy for this newspaper. I subscribe to it and the “Top rated stocks under $10”. I’ve made money from both.

Fools:
Hidden Gems – Small Caps
Global Gains – International Stocks
Inside Value – Value Stocks
Rule Breakers – High Growth Stocks
Income Investor – High Yield & Growth Stocks

I have not personally used these lists, but I’m a huge fan of their books and web site.

The Street:
Cramer’s Action Alert Plus – Jim Cramer sends out his buy and sell decisions.
Breakout Stocks
Market Movers
And many more….

The Street offers a wide variety of lists including Jim Cramer’s personal portfolio. Love him or hate him, he’s entertaining. I don’t personally use The Street’s services or web site. I was a fan of Jim Cramer’s show before I decided to cancel my evil satellite service.

Good luck and happy trading!

* I remember blackboards, but my kids have informed me that they are whiteboards now. It’s unfortunate that they will miss the fun of cleaning the chalk from the erasers (yuck).

This is handy for you lunch break investors.  Say you go to lunch and have a nice burrito.  You find the dream stock that is going to make you millions.  You buy! Just in case, you set a stop loss at 8%.  Now this awesome stock grows and grows.  Then one day, bang!  It’s not a hot stock any more.  Your trailing stop loss kicks in and sells at 8% under the last “up” closing price.  Now you made millions without trying.  Or in some cases stopped your loses before you lost a bug chunk of change.

Use trailing stop loss to protect your capital and profits.

Here are my Lunch Break Investing Rules:

1. Only buys stocks on the watch list.
2. Must be trending upward.
3. Must have a trending sweep of at least 10%.
4. Buy only at the bottom trend line.
5. Set a loss limit (2-3%).
5. Set a trailing stop loss to 8% below the bought price (dollar amount on the stop loss, not percent)
6. Set a profit limit (5-10%).
6. Allow the stock to trend upward until trailing stop loss is activated.
7. Never break any of these rules.
8. Adapt my strategy as needed.

Over the next several weeks I will be expanding on each of these items.  I will also concentrate on the automation and mobile techniques.

Comment and share!

Most accounts can be started for $500 or less. Use your tax return or start a saving account to save the money to start investing. Also see my post about getting started even if you make minimum wage.

2. It’s the wrong time.

The worst time to invest in the stock market is tomorrow. Tomorrow is too late. Today is always the best time. Your money can’t grow until you invest it.

3. Recession!

Remember the often used “Buy low and sell high.” Guess what a recession does to stocks; it pushes them down to the “low” point of the last statement.

4. It’s too complicated.

It can be. Depending on your investing goals and strategy. Of course, it can be so simple you can do it on your lunch break. Like me!

5. I don’t have enough time.

Like step 4, most investing can be done in under an hour. I do most, if not all of my investing homework at lunch.

6. I’ll lose ALL my money.

Diversify! Unless you have a string of bad luck and all the companies go out of business, you won’t loss all your money. Keep in mind one of the goals of investing is to persevere your capital. It’s ok to take a loss if it minimizes the damage one or two bad stocks can do to your portfolio. And remember, always have a loss limit.

Got other excuses you have heard and want to share, COMMENT!

Now if you are like me and when you got started you had no idea what a loss limit was, then you may have a few that have lost big. Here are 4 questions to ask before you sell:

Is this a long term goal/investment? The beauty of the stock market is that it does bounce back. Depending on the industry and the company, you could see it bounce back.

Is it a good value company? Do your homework. Is it a good value stock. This is a good sign it could bounce back.

How much are you down? If you are down over 25%, then it may be time to sell and take the hit. Keep in mind that farther it goes down the more it has to earn to bounce back to your entry point.

Can you off set your winnings with this loss? Taxes! Uncle Sam gives investors some breaks. One is that you are taxed on your profits minus losses. Check the tax law or a trusted accountant for more details.

If you have other suggestions, please leave a comment below!

Get in and get started. Learn the ropes and make some money. And of course, check back here or subscribe to the RSS for more articles and tips!